It's a Smell World After All

"Dogs seem to stick their heads out of moving cars almost any chance they get" writes Matt Soniak for Mental Floss. "What’s so great about a wind-whipped snout?"

It's a whirlwind world of smells for these two Irish Setters.

Soniak continues "...the window’s main draw isn’t the scenery or the breeze. What dogs are after are smells. As air moves over the olfactory membrane, odor molecules settle on the scent receptors and get recognized. The more air there is flowing over the membrane, the more scents the dogs can detect."

Read the full text here. --brought to you by mental_floss!

Apparently, dogs have about 45 times the number of olfactory sensors as humans. I guess if you had a nose with the power of 45 noses, you'd stick your head out of the window of a moving car too!

But be alert to the dangers your dog faces. Eye injury and the risk of dogs leaping or falling out of a moving vehicle are very real problems. We'll have more fascinating information and stories on this subject in an upcoming newsletter, so stay tuned for that!